Candidates Tournament Round 12

The drama reached fever-pitch in round 12 of the London Candidates Tournament today, as the event neared its final stages. It was a fantastic round where the result of the two crucial games was unclear until the very end.

After yesterday's 11th round Vladimir Kramnik claimed he would be happy to draw his vital game with Lev Aronian today with the black pieces. Yet when he played the bold anti-positional 10...f5 it was clear that he was targeting more than half a point!

Aronian found himself under great pressure and Kramnik grabbed a winning advantage with the beautiful 25...Be4. It seemed to be all over, but somehow Kramnik allowed Aronian back into the game and at the first time control computer analysis had it dead level. However, the position wasn't so easy for tired carbon based life-forms near the end of a tournament after hours of hard-fought play. Aronian was unable to distract Kramnik's bishop with his extra pawns and Kramnik won the game!

Vladimir Kramnik won an amazing game against Aronian

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Lev Aronian was outplayed by Kramnik and missed his drawing chance

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The other crucial game was Magnus Carlsen's encounter with the unpredictable Vassily Ivanchuk. This time Chucky played a mainline defense, the Sicilian Taimanov, and when Carlsen spent fully 20 minutes thinking about his 13th move Bd4, it was clear something had already gone badly wrong for the tournament leader.

Carlsen has a great record against Ivanchuk and had already managed to save some difficult positions in the tournament, but this time it was too much to ask. Ivanchuk brought home the full point after 7 gruelling hours for a shock win which gives the tournament lead to Kramnik. "I think I played absolutely disgracefully from move one" said an obviously gutted Carlsen at the press conference.

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Magnus Carlsen...where did it all go wrong?

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The game between Boris Gelfand and Peter Svidler was the first to finish, and after a balanced struggle a draw was agreed once the first time control was reached.

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Boris Gelfand and Peter Svidler drew their game

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The game between Teimour Radjabov and Alexander Grischuk was another long struggle. Radjabov held an endgame advantage but was unable to convert a rook plus f and h pawn against rook ending, and the game ended in a draw.

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Teimour Radjabov and Alexander Grischuk

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Tomorrow is a rest day, so the penultimate round is on Sunday, and the final round Monday. The UK also moves onto BST (British Summer Time), so games will start at 13:00 GMT (14:00 BST).

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The standings after 12 rounds

Name

Fed

Elo

Pts

Vladimir Kramnik

RUS

2810

8

Magnus Carlsen

NOR

2872

7½

Levon Aronian

ARM

2809

6½

Peter Svidler

RUS

2747

6

Boris Gelfand

ISR

2740

5½

Alexander Grischuk

RUS

2764

5½

Vassily Ivanchuk

UKR

2757

5

Teimour Radjabov

AZE

2793

4

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The 2013 Candidates Tournament runs from 14 March - 2 April in London, with the winner earning the right to challenge current world champion Vishy Anand for the title.

The tournament is an 8-player double round-robin event and the venue is The IET at 2 Savoy Place on the banks of the river Thames. The total prize fund is €510,000 (approx 665,000 USD).

All rounds start at 14:00 GMT, and the time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, then an extra hour added for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes more with a 30 second increment to finish.

Comentarios

Many people don´t like Kramnik´s play but the fact is that he upgraded his master Kasparov and he proofs that by beating him in 2000!The only chess player who beats him(in man to man match),so far,was Anand!That,s why he is on the top of the border right now!Like it or not.

This is for those who still think that Kramnik beats Ivanchuk on time!Round 6 Kramnik vs Ivanchuk- draw!

The next game to finish was the clash between Vladimir Kramnik and Vassily Ivanchuk. Kramnik was still looking for his first win after Lev Aronian miraculously slipped through his fingers yesterday, and with Ivanchuk once again burning a lot of time on the clock early in the game it looked good for the Russian.

Kramnik took advantage of Ivanchuk's time trouble by launching a direct sacrificial attack on his king. But a rook down, Kramnik couldn't find a knockout blow for his attack and decided to repeat moves, despite Ivanchuk having just 1 minute left and 10 moves still to play before the first time control!

Kramnik explained in the post match press conference,"If Vassily had 5 seconds left, then I would continue, but with one minute...", and joked,"Players are not blundering pieces to me!

SerbianChessStar "if you're no(sic) allowed to say 'I played like ****' then go move to another country where free speech is not allowed."

Serbian, free speech is not the ability to say what you want without consequence or judgement, it is the ability to say what you want without prosecution by the government. Free speech does not however give you permission to act rude or obnoxious and not get called out on it.

With that said, Carlsen was obviously upset that he lost (he's not used to it after all) and was just venting. Ivanchuk played a great game because he capitalized on Carlsen's miscues and unlike a few other people in this tournament was able to hold the advantages that Carlsen gave him. I have not read the full transcript of Carlsen's comments so I have no idea if he did give credit to Ivanchuk or not, and if he did not then it was rude. It's always just good etiquette when you call out your own bad play to give credit to your opponent for their good play.

duniel, personal response to you: I somehow identify with your post. After I fell in love with Chess (that's how it feels) it was a bit depressing to enter the Internet forums and find the same demons as everywhere else. The wish to bite, the hatred, contempt, envy... There's no such a thing as a chess community. Amongst those interested in chess you can find the whole spectrum of humans, every color, shape and odor. And that's good, because Chess is as large as life. Just in case it resonates to you, I'm trying to become less judgemental, learn to laugh more about the world's idiocy, run away from toxic people and nourish the friendships that are worthy. Best regards.

I like Carlsen, but, surprise! he's not invincible! And how strange he should lose, with white, mind you, against the craziest guy in the tournament. And I mean crazy as a compliment. What was it Bogart said when he thought a tiger had eaten Tim Holt? ....... "Done as if by order!"

Come on people, its only 1/2 point tournement with two games remaining, this is not done yet, and actualy this good for the young Carlsen, he has to learn that if he wants to get up there, he has to make a real commitment on each and every game, and the most important thing is that his chess is the best in the world and its only about discipline and commitment, i think the day off came at the right time and chances are good for a tie-break match between Kramnik and Carlsen.

Some of these comments are unbelievable. But what should I expect after "Wonderboy" loses?

People complaining about the tournament format need to acknowledge that CARLSEN WANTED A CANDIDATES TOURNAMENT and FIDE GAVE IT TO HIM.

I don't want to hear any excuses now. Every top player I can recall being interviewed thought it was (at the very least) "strange" that Carlsen didn't compete in the Candidates Matches last year (J.Polgar, Gelfand, Kasparov, Karpov, and I'm sure others too). As someone said many pages ago, take all of your chances to become the Champion, if indeed it is that important to you. Or maybe it's more important to avoid the matches but shout "hey, I'm #1"...

Carlsen wins most of the supertournaments he enters, and yet he may not win the Candidates Tournament! THIS is what becoming WORLD CHAMPION is all about, and why it means so much more than #1: intangibles, as I've said before (in regards to Gelfand last year). Stepping up when it really counts.

Let Kramnik and Anand have a rematch while Carlsen is off somewhere winning another meaningless supertournament. It will be a very interesting match!

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